S14 

■ ^ 
Viol* 



/z. 



SH 361 
• U4 
1902 

Cop ^ REGULATIONS 



GOVERNING VESSELS EMPLOYED IN 



FUE-SEAL FISHING 



DURING THE 



SEASON OF 1902. 



v 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1902. 



Dtfi 



4 ^ 



| & 



0^ 



oJ 



Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary, 

Washington, B. C, March H, 1902. 
The following act of Congress, approved December 29, 1897, and the 
annexed regulations of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration, concluded at 
Washington, February 29, 1892, in relation to the fur seals, are pub- 
lished for the information of all concerned : 

ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED DECEMBER 29, 1897. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congrtss assembled, That no citizen of the United 
States, nor person owing duty of obedience to the laws or the treaties of 
the United States, nor any person belonging to or on board of a vessel 
of the United States, shall kill, capture, or huut, at any time or in any 
manner whatever, any fur seal in the waters of the Pacific Ocean north 
of the thirty fifth degree of north latitude and including Bering Sea and 
the Sea of Okhotsk. 

Section 2. That no citizen of the United States, nor person above 
described in section one, shall equip, use, or employ, or furnish aid in 
equipping, using or employing, or furnish supplies to any vessel used 
or employed, or to be used or employed in carrying on or taking part in 
said killing, capturing, or hunting of fur seals in said waters, nor shall 
any vessel of the United States be so used or employed. 

Sec. 3. That every person guilty of a violation of the provisions of 
this Act, or of any regulations made thereunder, shall, for each offense, 
be fined not less than two hundred dollars or more than two thousand 
dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both ; and every 
vessel, its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, at any time used or 
employed in violation of this Act, or of the regulations made there- 
u nder, shall be forfeited to the United States. 

Sec. 4. That if any vessel of the United States shall be found within 
the waters to which this Act applies, having on board fur-seal skins, or 
bodies of seals, or apparatus or implements suitable for killing or taking 
seals, it shall be presumed that such vessel was used or employed in the 
killing of said seals, or that said apparatus or implements were used in 
violation of this Act until the contrary is proved to the satisfaction of 
the court. 

Sec. 5. That any violation of this Act or of the regulations thereunder 
may be prosecuted either in the district court of Alaska or in any dis- 
trict court of the United States in California, Oregon, or Washington. 

Sec. 6. That this Act shall not interfere with the privileges accorded 
to Indians dwelling on the coast of the United States under section six 
of the act of April sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, but the 
limitations prescribed in said Act shall remain in full force. 

Sec. 7. That this Act shall not affect in any way the killing or taking 
of fur seals upon the Pribilof Islands, or the laws of the United States 
relating thereto. 



Seo. 8. Tliat any officer of the Naval or Revenue Cutter Service of 
the United States, and any other officers duly designated by the Presi- 
dent, may search any vessel of the United Stales in port or on the high 

seas suspected of having violated or of having an intention to violate 
the provisions of this Act, and may seize such vessel and the offending 
officers and crew and bring them into the most accessible port of the 
States and Territory mentioned in section five of this Act for trial. 

Sec. 9. That the importation into the United States by any person 
whatsoever of fur-seal skins taken in the waters mentioned in this Act, 
whether raw, dressed, dyed, or manufactured, is hereby prohibited, and 
all such articles imported after this Act shall take effect shall not be 
permitted to be exported, but shall be seized and destroyed by the 
proper officers of the United States. 

Sec. 10. That the President shall have power to make all necessary 
regulations to carry this Act into effect. 

Approved, December 29, 1897. 

Under the provisions of the foregoing act of Congress it is unlawful 
for any citizen of the United States or any vessel thereof to engage in 
pelagic sealing at any time or in any manner, in the waters of the Pacific 
Ocean north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, in the Bering 
Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk, and it shall, be the duty of vessels of the 
Revenue Cutter Service of the United States to seize any United States 
vessel found violating this law, whether during the open or closed season 
prescribed in the regulations of the Paris Arbitration Tribunal, and to 
send or bring such vessel, its officers and crew into the most accessible 
port of the United States for trial. 

REGULATIONS OF THE PARTS TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION. 

Whereas the following articles of the award of the Tribunal of 
Arbitration constituted under the treaty concluded at Washington the 
twenty-ninth of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, between 
the United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen of the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, were delivered to the agents of 
the respective Governments on the fifteenth day of August, eighteen 
hundred and ninety three: 

Article 1. 

The Governments of the United States and Great Britain shall forbid 
their citizens and subjects, respectively, to kill, capture, or puisne at 
any time, and in any manner whatever, the animals commonly called 
fur seals, within a zone of sixty miles around the Pribilof Islands, 
inclusive of the territorial waters. 

The miles mentioned in the preceding paragraph are geographical 
miles, of sixty to a degree of latitude. 

Article 2. 

The two Governments shall forbid their citizens and subjects respec- 
tively, to kill, capture, or pursue, in any manner whatever, during the 
season extending, each year, from the first of May to the thirty-first of 
July, both inclusive, the fur seals on the high sea, in the part of the 
Pacific Ocean, inclusive of the Bering Sea, which is situated to the north 
of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and eastward of the one hun- 



dred and eightieth degree of longitude from Greenwich till it strikes the 
water boundary described in article one of the treaty of eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-seven between the United States and Bussia, and following 
that line up to Berings Straits. 

Article 3. 

During the period of time and in the waters in which the fur-seal 
fishing is allowed, only sailing vessels shall be permitted to carry on or 
take part in fur-seal fishing operations. They will, however, be at liberty 
to avail themselves of the use of such canoes or undecked boats, pro- 
pelled by paddles, oars, or sails, as are in common use as fishing boats. 

Article 4. 

Each sailing vessel authorized to fish for fur-seals must be provided 
with a special license issued for that purpose by its Government, and 
shall be required to carry a distinguishing flag to be prescribed by its 
Government. 

Article 5. 

The masters of the vessels engaged in fur-seal fishing shall enter 
accurately in their official log book the date and place of each fur-seal 
fishing operation, and also the number and sex of the seals captured 
upon each day. These entries shall be communicated by each of the 
two Governments to the other at the end of the fishing season. 

Article 6. 

The use of nets, firearms, and explosives shall be forbidden in the 
fur seal fishing. This restriction shall not apply to shotguns when 
such fishing takes place outside of Bering Sea during the season when 
it may be lawfully carried on. 

Article 7. 

The two Governments shall take measures to control the fitness of 
the men authorized to engage in fur-seal fishing ; these men shall have 
been proved fit to handle with sufficient skill the weapons by means of 
which this fishing may be carried on. 

Article 8. 

The regulations contained in the preceding articles shall not apply to 
Indians dwelling on the coast of the territory of the United States or of 
Great Britain, and carrying on fur-seal fishing in canoes or undecked 
boats not transported hj^ or used in connection with other vessels and 
propelled wholly by paddles, oars, or sails, and manned by not more 
than five persons each in the way hitherto practiced by the Indians, 
provided such Indians are not in the employment of other persons and 
provided that, when so hunting in canoes or undecked boats, they shall 
not hunt fur seals outside of territorial waters under contract for the 
delivery of the skins to any person. 

This exemption shall not be construed to affect the municipal law of 
either country, nor shall it extend to the waters of Bering Sea or the 
waters of the Aleutian Passes. 



Nothing herein contained is intended to interfere with the employ- 
ment of [ndians as hunters or otherwise in connection with fur-sealing 

vessels as heretofore. 

Article !). 

The concurrent regulations hereby determined with a view to the 
protection and preservation of the fur seals, shall remain in force until 
they have been, in whole or in part, abolished or modified by common 
agreement between the Governments of the United States and of Gre t 
Britain. 

The said concurrenl regulations shall be submitted every five years 
to a new examination, so as to enable both interested Government 
consider whether, in the light of past experience, there is occasion for 
any modification thereof. 

The above regulations of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration are still 
in force as applicable to British vessels. The closed season for pelagic 
sealing is therein fixed from the first of .May to the thirty-first of July, 
both inclusive, during which period it is unlawful for British vessels 
to kill, capture, or puisne the fur seals on the high seas in the Pacific 
Ocean north of the thirty tilth degree of north latitude, or eastward of 
the one hundred and eightieth degree of longitude. Under said regu- 
lations British vessels are permitted to engage in pelagic sealing after 
the thirty first of July, but in the performance of said sealing they are 
forbidden to enter a zone within sixty miles around the Pribilof Islands, 
tl shall be the dutj of vessels of the Revenue Cutter Service detailed 
to patrol the waters above described, to seize any British vessel found 
violating the said regulations of the Paris Arbitration Tribunal, and 
send or bring the vessels so offending, with all persons on board, 
together with the proofs and declarations of the officer making the 
seizure, to Unalaska. and deliver her to the senior British naval officer 
present, or to the most convenient port in British Columbia, and there 
deliver her to the proper authoi ities of Great Britain, or to the com- 
manding officer of any British vessel charged with the enforcement of 
said regulations. 

L. M. Shaw, 

Approved: Secretary of the Treasury. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



II nil li ii in 

002 894 272 2 



